168 Texas Tech Health Sciences Center students learn residency program on 2025 Match Day

Four years of late nights studying, cramming for tests, and not knowing what the future may hold have paid off, as 168 Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center medical students were matched to a residency program.

Months ago, medical students toured, interviewed and applied for their residency programs nationwide. They did not know who they were matched with until every medical campus and student learned on the 2025 Match Day nationwide.

As the clock struck 11 a.m. on Friday, March 21, in Lubbock, professors, family, friends and students got to see 100% of the TTUHSC students get matched with a residency program, making this the second year in a row.

It is also the second year the newly minted TTUHSC School of Medicine dean has overseen a Match Day ceremony at the university, which also achieves another goal.

"This year, we got a greater number of our Texas Tech students doing their residency in Lubbock, and within Texas Tech," Dean Dr. John Toledo said. "So this is part of our vision and our mission to train physicians to serve our people, to serve our region."

Two of those students staying in Lubbock are brothers Rodie and Rorie Brister from Tolar, Texas. They also graduated from TTUHSC's sister school, Texas Tech University.

Both were hoping to match at the same place prior to opening their Match Day envelopes, which they did, with Rodie matching with the General Surgery residency program at TTUHSC and Rorie matching with the Orthopedic Surgery residency program at TTUHSC.

Familiar classmates will also join them at the TTUHSC campus in Lubbock with:

• Eight students in Family Medicine.

• Three in Pediatrics.

• Two in Obstetrics & Gynecology

• Two in Anesthesiology

• Two in Medicine (Preliminary).

• One in Surgery (Preliminary).

• One in Emergency Medicine.

• One in Neurosurgery.

Some will have to travel a little further, such as the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Case Western and University of Pennsylvania.

With the most nerve-wracking part of medical school over, all 168 students are set to walk the stage in May, with Toledo giving them advice before they embark on the next chapter of their medical education.

"Today, it is the end of the beginning," Toledo said. "They are starting the period of their lives, and they will be doing the thing that they have been preparing themselves to do for so many years."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: 168 TTUHSC medical students match to residency programs on 2025 Match Day